Tuesday, June 27 2006 11:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Melbourne: Australia has decided to move ahead with a 500,000 tonne wheat shipment, which had been held up over quarantine concerns, after it resolved a long-running dispute with India over the US$ 90 million grain deal.

"AWB has successfully resolved key issues relating to its current Indian contract and is now moving to finalise its shipping programme for our customer," Australian Wheat Board spokesperson Peter Mcbride sources here today (June 27,2006).

About 100,000 tonnes of the contract has already been delivered to the southern Indian ports of Tuticorn and Chennai.

But several other shipments had been held up because of quarantine concerns. The company, however, described the problem largely as a technical issue.

"Apart from filling the 500,000 tonne contract, AWB has also won a second similar deal that is likely to be filled over the next four months,"he said.

The one million tonne will come out of the national wheat pool.

The initial contract was India's first large grain import in nearly a decade after being self-sufficient over that time.

The two contracts are some of the first major sales since trade with Iraq was suspended over claims AWB paid US$ 300 million in kickbacks to the former regime of Saddam Hussein.